Archiwa kategorii: PCB Prototyping and Manufacturers

Cheap PCB prototyping & manufacturing in China – reviews

Review of some Chinese PCB prototyping services and manufacturers

I’m in progress of testing some of cheap Chinese PCB manufacturers. I’m going to try to write detailed description for each of them.

Tested so far:

JLCPCB.com

Link:
https://jlcpcb.com/

Review:
JLCPCB.com – The best value for money PCB Service in 2017

SeeedStudio Fusion

Link:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion_pcb.html

Review:
SeeedStudio.com Fusion – New PCB Services from popular DIY and prototyping company

Dangerous Prototypes

Link:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/store

Review:
Dangerous Prototypes – PCB Manufacturer Review

DirtyPCBS

Link:
http://dirtypcbs.com/

Review:
DirtyPCBS.com – PCB Prototyping review

shenzhen2u

Link:
http://www.shenzhen2u.com/PCB

Review:
ShenZen2U PCB Prototyping Review

smart-prototyping

Link:
http://smart-prototyping.com/PCB-Prototyping.html

Review:
Smart Prototyping – PCB Prototyping review

ShenZen2U and SmartPrototyping looks bascily like the same company. But they are not (as SmartPrototyping explained).

PCBWay.com – PCB Prototype the Easy Way

TLDR

$5.00 for 10pcs of standard boards
$10.00 for stencil, cut to smaller size
24/7 operation, 4 days from order to shipping, 12 days for cheapest E-Packet to arrive.

Introduction

Working on my new electronics project, I found it essential to search for another brand to fulfill all of my PCB expectations. Product was meant to be small (about 70x40mm), but made with the highest precision. This time I decided to give PCBWay a try, which is one of the biggest and most popular PCB manufacturer in China. Without a doubt, it was worth trying!

My order

As always my order was in pretty standard format, including PCBs and a stencil. This time I decided to use standard postal shipping because there was no hurry and to I decided to do everything to avoid custom problems.

  • Boards:
    • 70x40mm
    • 2 layers
    • 10pcs
    • Standard green soldermask
    • 1oz
    • HASL
    • Silkscreen on top and bottom
    • Some miling
    • Minimal allowed clearances
  • Stencil:
    • The smallest non-framework option
  • Shipping:
    • E-Packet

Price

As it can be read on the website: „Our pricing structure is transparent and has no hidden cost in it.” That is 100% true. What’s more, in comparison to European countries, the price is shockingly low – even after considering costs of shipping. And what’s even more important, I wasn’t obligated to choose between two – price and quality.

Advanced instant quote feature allows to quickly find out the final cost of the whole project, even including automatically calculated shipping cost.

The base price for PCBs is $5.00 for 10pcs with all standard features. However the panelization is not free of charge, even if the same design is repeated within the board. The stencil is $10, making the whole PCBs + stencil setup to cost of $15.

There are multiple shipping options available, including China Post, EMS, DHL, Fedex, and many more. The fastest way (3-5 days) is DHL which is $40 for order as above. The cheapest option is China Post or E-Packet (my option), $19.

Processing

What I found really helpful while working on my order was 24 hours Customer Service. On the website (https://www.pcbway.com/) you can find online chat with stuff, who is there to help you – I found it really useful. Contact is  relly smooth, reply quick and written in really good english. You don’t have to guess what the autor meant to say. In one word – professional.

An interesting thing while placing the order is an online semi-automatic project verification. In case of standard orders, board are verified automatically and almost instantly. In other cases the order is taken on hold for manual verification, which takes a few hours.

The payment step is available after the verification, so in case of rejection or price adjustments there is no need to cancel anything.

Shipping

There are multiple shipping options available, including quick and cheap ones. As I said above, this time I wasn’t in a hurry, so first time I decided to use normal postal services, „E-Packet”. PCBWay estimates delivery time to be between 15 and 30 days. In my case the package was sent on 2018-11-07 and delivered on 2018-11-19, so it was 12 days from shipping to delivery.

Tracking code is available instantly after shipping, and it’s updated pretty often. Logistics information are visible on 17track and domestic post office website.

What I received?

After total of 16 days I received the PCBWay box. The stencil was wrapped in cardboard and the boards were wrapped in bubble wrap.

I’m very content with the overall quality of what I received. Even though the box was slightly damaged during shipping, there was no harm to either stencil or the boards.

In this project, I decided to use minimal allowed clearances to squeeze the juices from the project. As expected, there are no visible flaws. I’m going to update this post when the project is assembled and completed.

Summary

If you are interested in good quality at low price, even with most complicated solutions, you shoud definitely contact PCBWay! Absoluetly worth trying, great customer service and quick shipping.

 

JLCPCB.com – The best value for money PCB Service in 2017

https://jlcpcb.com/

TLDR

$2 for 10 boards
$9 for stencil
$25 for DHL

Currently probably the cheapest on the market.

3 working days between order and shipping.

Zero flaws or problems even with the lowest possible clearances.

Absolutely worth trying!

Introduction

Some time ago I was looking for a new PCB service. After quite a long and astute investigation I bumped into very interesting offer.

„JLPCB is the largest PCB prototype enterprise in China”.

After some small problems with registration, which were solved really quickly by their support team, I was finally able to place my order.

Czytaj dalej

SeeedStudio.com Fusion – New PCB Services from popular DIY and prototyping company

https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion_pcb.html

I discovered SeeedStudio some time ago, since the company is pretty active in the internet (facebook, own wiki, some projects on github). Last month they introduced PCB manufacturing services, called „SeeedStudio Fusion Services”

I decided to give it a try, because the website looked pretty neat and modern. They also provided (see below) a little bit better specs than the others.

Czytaj dalej

Dangerous Prototypes – PCB Manufacturer Review

http://dangerousprototypes.com/store – another brand of DirtyPCBs, probably their „beta” site

My orders

For now, I have places three orders there, all with the same specification:

  • PCBs:
    • FR4
    • 2 layers
    • 10cm x 10cm
    • 10 pcs
    • 1.6mm thick
    • 1oz/ft2 = 35um
    • HASL
    • Green
  • Stencil: frameless

In one of my orders I also used free „panelization”. They allow to duplicate the same layout over one board – I had 4x 4.5cm x 4.5cm over one 10cm x 10cm piece.

Czytaj dalej

DirtyPCBS.com – PCB Prototyping review

http://dirtypcbs.com/store/pcbs – cheap Chinese PCB Manufacturer review

Update 05.12.16. The dirtypcbs site looks pretty new, it is now the same as http://dangerousprototypes.com/store

My order:

  • PCB
    • 2 layers
    • 10cm x 10 cm
    • 10 pieces
    • PCB Thickness: 1.6mm
    • Surface finish: HASA
    • Solder mask color: Green (all with the same price)
    • No sub-boards
    • 100% E-Test
  • Stencil – frameless 13cm x 21cm

Czytaj dalej

Smart Prototyping – PCB Prototyping review

http://smart-prototyping.com/PCB-Prototyping.html – another cheap Chinese PCB Manufacturer review

My order:

  • PCB
    • 2 layers
    • 10cm x 10 cm
    • 10 pieces
    • PCB Thickness: 1.6mm
    • Copper thickness: double – 2oz/ft2 = 70um
    • Surface finish: HASA
    • Solder mask color: Green (additional fees for other colors)
    • No sub-boards
    • 100% E-Test
  • Stencil – frameless 13cm x 21cm

Czytaj dalej

ShenZen2U PCB Prototyping Review

http://www.shenzhen2u.com/PCB – cheap Chinese PCB Manufacturer review

My order:

  • PCB
    • 2 layers
    • max 5cm x 5 cm
    • 10 pieces
    • PCB Thickness: 1.6mm
    • Copper thickness: standard – 1 oz/ft2 = 35um
    • Surface finish: HASA
    • Solder mask color: Green (additional fees for other colors)
    • No sub-boards
    • 100% E-Test
  • Stencil – frameless 19cm x 29cm

Czytaj dalej